Criminalizing unlawful presence

It’s been more than a decade since the massive immigrants’ rights marches of 2006, but the images remain palpable. Millions of immigrants and their allies took to the streets in the country’s major urban centers and small towns alike. Had it been enacted, Representative James Sensenbrenner’s infamous bill, H.R. 4437, would have criminalized presence in the United States in violation of immigration law. Today, the House Judiciary Committee takes up a bill that revives Sensenbrenner’s failed attempt. The Michael Davis, Jr. and Danny Oliver in Honor of State and Local Law Enforcement Act, H.R. [...]

With SB 4, Texas faces legal and public safety climb

By Joshua Mitson Since President Trump’s inauguration a wave of “anti-sanctuary city” bills have been proposed by state legislatures across the country. Last Thursday, one of the most extreme variations of these bills was approved by the Texas state legislature and on Sunday, Governor Greg Abbott signed it into law. Senate Bill 4 (SB 4) is, in many ways, a standard anti-sanctuary policy – it compels local law enforcement agencies to honor ICE detainers, it forbids campus peace officers from obstructing local police from inquiring into immigration status of arrestees and compels [...]

Systemic indifference in ICE detention leads to unnecessary deaths

In a prison population of roughly 400,000, someone is bound to die. But it doesn’t have to happen because of sheer indifference as a report released today found sometimes occurs in ICE detention. Advocacy groups Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC) teamed up to take an in-depth look of medical records for eighteen deaths in ICE custody. The organizations tasked two independent experts with extensive experience in inmate medical care delivery with reviewing records of deaths from 2012 to 2015. Based on those analyses plus interviews [...]

Congress finds more money for immigration imprisonment

The budget bill making its way through Congress and expected to receive the president’s signature offers plenty of money for immigration imprisonment. If enacted, the bill would fund federal government operations through September 30, 2017. The nation’s immigration imprisonment regime is delegated among various agencies. Some agencies hold migrants under civil law authority and others use criminal confinement powers. All hold people who are not United States citizens because of the federal government’s claims that they violated some provision of immigration law. The Immigration and [...]

ICE deaths

The Trump Administration is busy expanding the nation’s immigration prison archipelago. An internal DHS document reports that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has already boosted its capacity by 1,100 beds available nightly. It is has identified an additional 21,000 beds that it could potentially tap. As I wrote last week, the Detention Watch Network has confirmed that ICE has secured agreements for over 2,000 beds in recent months and is currently negotiating for access to an additional 1,500 beds. Even before this increase, ICE already operated an enormous prison estate. For [...]

Texas Republican Admits He’s Pushing Private Prison Corporation’s Bill

A Republican state representative admits that he is promoting a bill written by the private prison corporation GEO Group. The bill would make it easier for private prison corporations to help the federal government lock up migrant families. “I've known the lady who’s their lobbyist for a long time,” Representative John Raney reportedly told the Associated Press last week. “That’s where the legislation came from.” The second-largest private prison operator in the United States, GEO runs an immigration prison in Karnes City, Texas, about sixty miles south of San Antonio, where it holds entire [...]

In Trump’s first 100 days, immigration imprisonment booms

On April 29, President Trump marks his first 100 days in office. In that time, he has certainly busied himself attacking migrants much as he did on the campaign trail. Staff in the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice, meanwhile, has made time for significant expansions to the nation’s population of immigration prisoners. According to news reports tracked by Detention Watch Network, the federal government is in the process of adding prison beds in at least four locations in Florida, and Texas. In total, DWN has confirmed that the federal government has secured [...]

Public Safety and the Fourth Amendment Work Together

By Christopher N. Lasch and César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández On Monday, the Colorado Senate is expected to consider a bill to prohibit cities and counties from limiting their role in enforcing federal immigration law. Senate Bill 17-281, the Colorado Citizen Protection Against Sanctuary Policies Act, relies on two fallacies perpetuated by the Trump administration in its campaign against so-called “sanctuary” cities. First, President Trump claims sanctuary jurisdictions endanger the public. S.B. 281 likewise claims that sanctuary policies are “contrary to the safety” of Coloradans. This [...]